In the follow-up to the approval granted by the Bundestag to Germany on Friday 31 March for the draft law on road tolls, Austria has said that it is preparing to go to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the matter. Austria’s decision was announced by the country’s Transport Minister, Jörg Leichtfried.
The minister used this occasion to justify his government’s decision and explain that, “The Italians, French and Austrians are paying and only the Germans are not. I consider this as discrimination and contrary to European law”.
The reason for this is still the same. Austria, together with other member states (see EUROPE 11713) and the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11735) consider that by introducing a motorway vignette system to finance its infrastructure (which includes a tax break for German nationals), the draft German law contravenes Article 18 of the TFEU, which bans any discrimination linked to nationality, irrespective of how it has been reformulated.
It should be pointed out that the Commission went to the European Court of Justice in September 2016 (see EUROPE 11635), before suspending the procedure following an agreement between the former and the German government (see EUROPE 11680).
The Austrian minister again criticised this agreement, which he described as a “scandal” that was creating the impression that small and large member states were no longer flying the same flag.
According to Walter Obwexer, a professor at the University of Innsbruck and a specialist in European law, quoted in a press release published by the country, the chances of Austria winning its case are high. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)